Search form

Music History

Please note: The information displayed here is current as of Tuesday, March 3, 2015, but the official Course Catalog should be used for all official planning.

2014-2015 Course Catalog

MUHI 100 Introduction to Music Literature

Lectures and guided listening for the non-music major, introducing musical materials, basic musical concepts, and a variety of styles and types of music. Consideration of the place of music in society, past and present. Does not satisfy course requirements for any music major.
Units: 6.

MUHI 110 Topics in Music History for the Non-Major

An exploration of a musicological topic that is more narrowly focused than or lies outside the scope of the Introduction to Music Literature course. May be repeated when topic is different. Does not satisfy course requirements for any music major.
Units: 1 TO 99.

MUHI 120 Introduction to Jazz History

An exploration of the musical development and cultural impact of jazz from its origins to the present for students not majoring in music. Lectures, films, and readings provide historical details. Does not satisfy course requirements for any music major.
Units: 6.

MUHI 133 Perspectives on Genius: The life and musical impact of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven, arguably one of the most famous composers of all time, is a compelling and fascinating figure in classical music. He occupies a central position as the architect of musical Romanticism and his influence continues today. In additions to studying his music from the perspective of his own time, we will discuss his extraordinary creative personality and the reception of his music by subsequent composers and listeners. A number of concerts and outside visits will be organized, and students will be encoursaged to attend relevant performances in London, for which they will be prepared in class. The course will be general in scope, and no prior musical knowledge will be expected. The course does not satisfy requirements for any music major. Not open to students who have received or need to receive credit for MUHI 433.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Must be attending the Lawrence London Centre

An introduction to British music in the first three-quarters of the 20th century. In addition to studying major works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Britten, students will explore the social and political currents as they impinged on musical life in Britain. A number of concerts and outside visits will be organized, and students will be encouraged to attend relevant performances in London, for which they will be prepared in class. The course will be general in scope, and no prior musical knowledge will be expected. Does not satisfy course requirements for any music major. Not open to students who have previously received, or need to receive credit for MUHI 435. Offered at the London Centre.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Must be attending the Lawrence London Centre.

MUHI 160 Advance of the American Musical

A study of this uniquely American theatrical form as it develops in response to our culture throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. Ability to read music helpful, but not required.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or consent of instructor
Also listed as Theatre Arts 425

MUHI 191 Directed Study in Music History

Directed study follows a syllabus set primarily by the instructor to meet the needs or interests of an individual student or small group of students. The main goal of directed study is knowledge or skill acquisition, not research or creative work.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 195 Internship in Music History

An experience-based project in music developed in consultation with a designated supervisor and a conservatory faculty member, comprising a work component and an academic component. The academic component of the internship, carried out under the supervision of the faculty member, may include readings related to the substance of the internship, discussions with the faculty member, and a written report or other culminating project appropriate to the discipline.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 201 Music History Survey I

A survey of Western music and introduction to the historical study of musical styles from the Middle Ages through the mid-18th century. Music majors are encouraged to enroll during the sophomore year.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUTH 251

MUHI 202 Music History Survey II

A survey of Western music and musical styles from the mid-18th century to the present. Music majors are encouraged to enroll during the sophomore year.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201

MUHI 210 Topics in Music History for the Non-major

This course will enable non-music majors to engage with the discipline of music history. May be repeated when topic is different. Does not satisfy course requirements for any music major.

Topic for Fall 2014: The Beatles -- Four Lads Who Shook the World
A survey of The Beatles' career from their formation and early development, rise to superstardom, and influence in popular music in the 1960s, to their subsequent adoration as cultural icons. Discussions will center on presentations of audio and video clips, and simple analyses of music and lyrics relating socio-cultural, political, and other extra-musical factors to popular music.

Topic For Spring 2015: The Rise of Rock ans Roll
Growing out of the need for the young generation to have a voice separate from the influence of their parents, Rock-and-Roll will be studied from its genesis in the mid-50s, combining influences from R&B, Country, and Pop, through the variety of sub-genres in the 60s to the punk and disco movements in the 70s that attempted to return R/R to its simpler origins and functions. Movers and shakers who shaped the growth and acceptance of R/R as a popular artistic culture as well as the multitude of social, political, and racial challenges that influenced popular music will be the basis of discussions in class.

Topic for Spring 2015: History of Recorded Sound
Since the late nineteenth century, the history of music has been tied inextricably to the history of recorded sound. In this course, we will consider the ways that the experience of recorded sound, from the earliest days of the recording industry to the iPod era, has shaped past and current practices of listening, performing, and contemplating music. Specific topics include: the development and cultural history of recording and playback technologies, recordings as documents of changing practices of classical music performance, tape music composition, sampling, and turntablism. Junior standing required.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

MUHI 223 Music & Mystical Experience

What is mystical experience? And how does music evoke, induce, or otherwise bring us into relation with it? These questions motivate a cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and diachronic exploration of the ways in which human beings experience the numinous through music. In the spirit of its title, the course also introduces specific contemplative practices in order to cultivate qualities of mind conducive to contemplative engagement with music and sound.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

MUHI 390 Tutorial in Studies Music History

Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 391 Directed Study in Music History

Directed study follows a syllabus set primarily by the instructor to meet the needs or interests of an individual student or small group of students. The main goal of directed study is knowledge or skill acquisition, not research or creative work.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 395 Internship in Music History

An experience-based project in music developed in consultation with a designated supervisor and a conservatory faculty member, comprising a work component and an academic component. The academic component of the internship, carried out under the supervision of the faculty member, may include readings related to the substance of the internship, discussions with the faculty member, and a written report or other culminating project appropriate to the discipline.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 399 Independent Study in Music History

Students considering an honors project should register for independent study for one or more terms.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 411 Aesthetics of Music

A study of what can reasonably be said or written about music, critically examining many of the typical late Western assumptions often made of it, e.g., that music is an art, that it involves the production of works, that it is expressive, that it is a universal language. Open to music majors and non-majors. Previous music study helpful but not required.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

MUHI 421 Music and Gender

This course will explore the relationship between music and gender in the Western world from the Middle Ages to the present. Considering classical and popular music, including music videos and film, as well as writings about gender and music, we will explore music's role as a reflection of, reaction to, and active participant in gender construction.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201 and MUHI 202

MUHI 422 Borrowed Music in the Movies

When a film uses a pre-existing piece of music (popular or classical), meanings multiply, both within and outside the film itself. This course will explore these meanings, focusing on the fluid and reciprocal relationship between film and the music it borrows.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201 and MUHI 202
Also listed as Film Studies 422

MUHI 423 Music and Mystical Experience

What is mystical experience? And how does music evoke, induce, or otherwise bring us into relation with it? These questions motivate a cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and diachronic exploration of the ways in which human beings experience the numinous through music. Readings from contemporary and historical sources in eastern and western philosophy, psychology, and the history and theory of music provide intellectual and aesthetic contexts in which to engage with a variety of musical practices and traditions. In the spirit of its title, the course also requires a commitment to specific contemplative practices—not bound to any particular belief system—that are introduced in an effort to cultivate qualities of mind conducive to contemplative engagement with a work of music or the experience of sound.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 433 Perspectives on Genius: The life and musical impact of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven, arguably one of the most famous composers of all time, is a compelling and fascinating figure in classical music. He occupies a central position as the architect of musical Romanticism and his influence continues today. In additions to studying his music from the perspective of his own time, we will discuss his extraordinary creative personality and the reception of his music by subsequent composers and listeners. A number of concerts and outside visits will be organized, and students will be encoursaged to attend relevant performances in London, for which they will be prepared in class. This course is a seminar involving independent research. Not open to students who have received credit for MUHI 133.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201 and 202; must be attending the Lawrence London Centre

An introduction to British music in the first three-quarters of the 20th century. In addition to studying major works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Britten, students will explore the social and political currents as they impinged on musical life in Britain. A number of concerts and outside visits will be organized, and students will be encouraged to attend relevant performances in London, for which they will be prepared in class. This course is a seminar involving independent research. Not open to students who have previously received credit for MUHI 135. Offered at the London Centre.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201 and 202

MUHI 440 Topics in Music History: Life and Works

A study of a composer’s career, emphasizing the relationship between composer and society. Topics in this series vary from year to year. May be repeated when topic is different.

Topic for Fall 2014: Kurt Weill--From Berlin to Broadway
In this seminar we will study the life and works of Kurt Weill (1900-1950), a composer whose contributions to the musical stage are unparalleled in the first half of the twentieth century. As an avant-garde composer in Europe, Weill was known for his collaborations with leading playwrights, including Bertolt Brecht; after 1935, Weill established himself in the United States as one of the most innovative composers on Broadway. In addition to focusing on a selection of Weill's compositions for theater, ballet, concert, and radio, we will study the history and culture of Berlin in the 1920s and New York in the 1930s and 40s as contexts for Weill's career.

Topic for Winter 2015: Stravinsky
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 441 Debussy: Contextual Perspectives

This course will examine Debussy and his music from a broad cultural perspective in order to reveal the connections between the music and the political, social, and artistic world in which it was created and received, and to use these connections to consider alternative paths of musical interpretation.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201 and MUHI 202

MUHI 450 Topics in Music History: Genre History

An examination of the historical development of a single genre, stressing the effects of societal changes. Topics in this series vary from year to year. May be repeated with consent of instructor.

Topic for Fall 2014: Music and the Fairy Tale
This course will explore the ways that music embodies, constructs, deconstructs, interrogates, and communicates values and meanings in a variety of fairy tale contexts in popular and classical realms.

Topic for Spring 2015: History of Recorded Sound
Since the late nineteenth century, the history of music has been tied inextricably to the history of recorded sound. In this course, we will consider the ways that the experience of recorded sound, from the earliest days of the recording industry to the iPod era, has shaped past and current practices of listening, performing, and contemplating music. Specific topics include: the development and cultural history of recording and playback technologies, recordings as documents of changing practices of classical music performance, tape music composition, sampling, and turntablism.

Topic for Spring 2015: The German Lied and National Identity
In this course, we will examine Lieder from the 18th to the 20th centuries from a socio-cultural perspective to explore the multiple ways that the genre has been bound up with German national identity.

Topic for Spring 2015: A History of Early Music Revivals
This course will examine when, where, how and why musicians have revived musical works and practices from the period roughly encompassing 800-1750 AD. In addition to studying early music movements, students will explore issues of performance practice and presentation by performing early musical works of their own choosing.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 451 History of the String Quartet

Composers have used the string quartet genre to express some of their most profound and daring musical thoughts since the late 18th century and up to the present day. Through readings and analysis, students will explore how this repertoire and its audiences have been shaped by sociological and aesthetic forces.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 452 History of the Wind Band

This course will be an examination of the history and development of the wind band as an artistic medium, focusing on repertoire and instrumentation development and cultural influences. The growth of the modern concert wind ensemble will be studied as a part of the evolution beginning with Gabrieli and proceeding through classical, romantic, and contemporary musical trends.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 453 Opera and Betrayal

This course will examine different modes of betrayal (for example, at the plot, music, or production level) within opera from the 17th century to the present and explore possible meanings conveyed by operas relative to specific societal contexts and ideals, past and present.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 201 and MUHI 202

MUHI 455 Jazz History

A study of the contributions of select jazz artists through analysis of recordings, historical films, solo transcriptions, scores, and readings from texts.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202 or consent of instructor

MUHI 460 Topics in Music History: Cultural Moments

A study of a particular time and place, examining the relationship between social institutions, intellectual ideas, and music products. Topics in this series vary from year to year. May be repeated with consent of instructor.

Topic for Winter 2015: Music and Colonialism in the Age of Exploration
This course will explore the role of music in colonial encounters from the 15th through the 18th centuries and the complex musical exchanges between colonizers and the colonized in New Spain, North America, and the Far East.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 465 The Second Viennese School: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

This course has as its principal focus the three great figures of the so-called “Second Viennese School”: Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. It includes not only a detailed study of their lives and works but also consideration of the cultural milieu from which they emerged and which they in turn influenced profoundly.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: MUHI 202

MUHI 470 Topics in Ethnomusicology - Regions

An examination of music of a particular geographic region or diasporic group. Topics and prerequisites may vary from course to course.

Topic for Winter 2015: Music of the Middle East
This course will introduce the main aspects of Arab, Turkish, and Persian art, folk, and popular musics. Students will become familiar with Middle Eastern tuning systems, rhythmic patterns, formal structures, and performance practices. We will also look at music’s role in society in these regions as well as among diasporic populations, and explore music’s connections to other areas of social, religious, and political life.
Units: 6.

MUHI 471 Performing Arts of Bali

This course explores the intersections of Balinese music, dance, drama, and ritural. Discussions will include how globalization, tourism, and economic and religious tensions affect the arts and performer’s lives. Students will have hands-on experience learning to play Balinese gamelan instruments.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing
Also listed as Ethnic Studies 471

MUHI 490 Topics in Ethnomusicology - Issues

An examination of a particular issue in ethnomusicological study. Topics and prerequisites may vary from course to course.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or consent of instructor

MUHI 491 Introduction to World Music & Culture

This course offers the opportunity to explore music and music cultures in a variety of ways and to increase your understanding of and appreciation for musics from around the world. We will discuss what music means to different people, how this relates to issues of ethnic, national, and gender identity, and how music traditions are changing due to forces of globalization. We will also discuss current ethnomusicological and anthropological theories that can help explain and analyze different contexts and understandings of music and why music is so important in human life. Students will apply these ideas in conducting their own musical ethnographic projects.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor

MUHI 493 Music and Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective

This course examines the relationship between the constructions of gender identities and music performance and practice, and looks at history and development of approaches, theories, and studies regarding this relationship. Each week contains theoretical readings from gender studies, women’s studies, or feminist scholarship as well as ethnomusicological case studies from a variety of locations around the world.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

MUHI 494 Music and the Environment

In many societies around the world, people use music to connect with nature, specific places, and surrounding environments. This course will explore music performance practices and repertoire that expresses or enacts these connections. Case studies will include songlines and Australian Aboriginal land claims, North American protest songs, and the intimate relationships between music and nature of the BaAka people in central Aftrica and among the Kakuli people in Papua, among others.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or consent of instructor
Also listed as Environmental Studies 494

MUHI 495 Introduction to Ethnomusicology

This course will cover the history of the field of ethnomusicology, key debates, influential scholars, and significant case studies. Important concepts will include fieldwork methods, organology (the study of musical instruments), tuning systems, transcription, and issues in applied ethnomusicology. This course will be particularly helpful to students considering graduate work in ethnomusicology.
Units: 6.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

MUHI 590 Tutorial in Studies Music History

Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 591 Directed Study in Music History

Directed study follows a syllabus set primarily by the instructor to meet the needs or interests of an individual student or small group of students. The main goal of directed study is knowledge or skill acquisition, not research or creative work.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 595 Internship in Music History

An experience-based project in music developed in consultation with a designated supervisor and a conservatory faculty member, comprising a work component and an academic component. The academic component of the internship, carried out under the supervision of the faculty member, may include readings related to the substance of the internship, discussions with the faculty member, and a written report or other culminating project appropriate to the discipline.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 599 Independent Study in Music History

Students considering an honors project should register for independent study for one or more terms.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 690 Tutorial in Studies Music History

Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 691 Directed Study in Music History

Directed study follows a syllabus set primarily by the instructor to meet the needs or interests of an individual student or small group of students. The main goal of directed study is knowledge or skill acquisition, not research or creative work.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 695 Internship in Music History

An experience-based project in music developed in consultation with a designated supervisor and a conservatory faculty member, comprising a work component and an academic component. The academic component of the internship, carried out under the supervision of the faculty member, may include readings related to the substance of the internship, discussions with the faculty member, and a written report or other culminating project appropriate to the discipline.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.

MUHI 699 Independent Study in Music History

Students considering an honors project should register for independent study for one or more terms.
Units: 1 TO 98.
Prerequisite: Counter Registration Required.